Local SEO?
-
Hello everyone,
I've just been through the Moz Local learning area, which is pretty informative. However, a lot of it seems like good practice for general online marketing (mobile friendly websites, goals per page...).
I'm new to all this - am I missing the point?
William
-
So glad to be of help, William!
-
Hello Miriam,
This is a really good answer, very clear and helpful so thanks very much.
I shall now read the rest of it..!
William
-
Hi William,
Good question! Let me give a definition of Local SEO that I think may be helpful.
Local SEO is good SEO + geography.
What does this mean? If you're familiar with SEO best practices, nearly all are directly applicable to Local. You'll need:
-
An optimized, crawlable, high quality website
-
A presence on other websites, namely via the building of citations on local business directory-type sites, but also via other types of websites such as industry publications, local blogs, etc.
-
In competitive niches, links and social
-
A plan for ongoing content development.
All of this is, indeed, just good design, usability, SEO and SEM, but the main difference is that geography is at the heart of what you're doing in each of the above practices. You're not trying to rank for the world, for the US, for a whole state; you are trying to rank for a specific city or a number of specific cities, and so everything you do must reflect this.
SEO is an excellent lead-in to learning Local SEO, because so many of the best practices you've already learned will be directly applicable. Does this help answer your question? If not, please let me know. I helped create the Moz Local Learning Center and if you've found something about it to be unclear, I'd be happy to chat further!
-
-
White-hat SEO (which Moz is completely about) incorporates good general marketing practices (like mobile experience, design, CRO...) Moz Local is a tool that will get and maintain your most important online citations for your business. These citations hold value for local search results for your business.
If you want to learn more about local SEO, check out some of these Moz resources:
-
Thanks Dave!
I was just thinking what were the differences between SEO and Local SEO, as the technical stuff you mention I assume is part of both.
Blood, Sweat and Tears - not sure. Cake perhaps?
-
William,
Welcome to the world of SEO, it's a journey which switches paths and takes you down dark alleys!
What are you trying to accomplish? The main rules of SEO
Domain, Structure of Site & URLs, W3C, Unique Content, Relevant Content, Easy to Read Content, Direct Content, New Content and More Content.
Lack of Errors, Monitoring, Analysis, Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Still up for it? Good luck, let me know if I can help.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
International Versus Local Backlinks?
I'm running a dentist's website and I've been wondering if there is any additional benefit to achieving local backlinks from other medical sites versus larger international ones? For example, if I had a blog article that I wanted another site to link to, would you choose the local medical website within the same city or the international one that has more viewers?
Local SEO | | Undergrnd0 -
Moz Local Reporting - What are you doing?
I am a pro when it comes to reporting for paid search. However we came out with a new local product and use Moz Local. What are you doing for reporting? Automated reports? Are you tracking progress over time? Is there a reporting application that automates the process?
Local SEO | | PSLab0 -
If I kill off the franchisee websites and create a corp SEO monster...will my Company's SEO suffer? Pros and Cons?
Our 25 franchisees sell one product of our 7 within the Corporate porfolio. We getting ready to release a brand new corp website employing all the best possible SEO practices. Since the franchisee's barely maintain their 3-page website...we are thinking of killing them off. We will create some market pages on the Corp side and continue to use HubSpot to pass along leads to the individual franchisees. Corporate has robust Content Marketing strategy in place. Any suggestions? Cases studies?
Local SEO | | Joseph.Lusso0 -
Community Discussion: Miriam's 2017 Local SEO Predictions ... And Yours?
I want to start this thread by thanking everyone in our community who has started and contributed to great threads this past year. You guys are an inspiration! I want to offer up a few predictions for the Local SEO industry in 2017 and ask you to contribute your own: Attribution will be big in 2017. Google will roll out a more thorough set of attributes in the GMB dashboard as we move forward through the new year. We'll see further rollout out of paid packs in service industries in which Google can play the middle man role. Free-packs won't be gone by the end of the year, but there will be fewer of them. Even SMB local businesses will have to start to tackle the ramifications of voice search. Local SEO will continue to merge with traditional, offline marketing. Local business websites will still matter, but Google will continue to do all it can to keep users within layers of its own local product, and some people will find this maze a bit bewildering. Reviews will finally be recognized as an integral facet of citations, rather than as something separate from them. Now, please, look into your own crystal ball and share your predictions with the community. What are your predictions for Local SEO in 2017? I'd love to know. And, while I'm at it, please let me wish each of you a busy and profitable new year in our exciting industry!
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis4 -
What should I write about in my blog, doing SEO for Boise, ID, USA
I'm starting the website HonestOakSEO.com It's targeting SEO in Boise, ID, USA I'm doing Ecommerce SEO, service-based SEO, informational SEO, local SEO, mainly on-site SEO, and content Analysis and Advice What should I write about in my blog? I want it to be excellent. Thanks
Local SEO | | BobGW0 -
Rank Locally and Globally (or at least Nationally)
I work with an interior design whom I've persuaded to purchase a virtual street address in the town she wanted to work in years ago. She has a Skokie, IL business address that has been claimed and confirmed across the internet. Now, she is growing and wants her new website to not only be optimized for the more affluent areas of Chicago but she also would like to gain Global notice, (I'd settle for National). My problems: She doesn't want to purchase a street address in Chicago because it is a pain to go get her mail. What do I do about all her directory listings and review sites that have her located in Skokie if I can persuade her to get a Chicago address? Do I leave the Skokie address and add more content targeting keyword phrases with Chicago? What should be my initial focus here? I feel it is a smaller target and less competition to go after Chicago but she wants to start spreading her wings and work all over the world. Help!!
Local SEO | | JanetJ0 -
How does local citations and links differ from national links?
HI So I read on here somewhere that it is important to get local links, instead of just national links. I am curious how does Google know if the links you are getting are from a local source? Thank you
Local SEO | | Berner0 -
SEO planning: Franchise/multiple local sites
I am in the planning stages of franchising a cleaning business and was wondering if anyone had some ideas on SEO strategy. If money were no object and I had a team of hundreds of copywriters at my disposal, would the ultimate solution be to have the following sort of URL structure www.cleanbiz.co.uk/city within which there are numerous www.cleanbiz.co.uk/city/local-town pages? If this is the best strategy then is it worthwhile to begin work towards ranking for cities and local towns within them prior to actually operating there? I understand that lack of physical presence will penalize me in terms of local search but would a lack of physical address and phone number render any foundation work pointless (for example, prior to having any franchises in say London, would it be worth while building quality content and links on a www.cleaningbiz.co.uk/london page, and then www.cleaningbiz.co.uk/london/notting-hill, alongside a blog and so on?) Interested to understand the best way to go about this given the enormity of the campaign! Thanks
Local SEO | | EdwardoUK0